What pours forth from that blazing glory hole? A shit-tonne of the purest gold on Earth. No joke. These fire-wielders are funneling 1000 kg of 99.99 percent pure gold into a mold to cast the hugest, most-valuable coin in history.

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In an act of either divine inspiration or profound hubris an Australian mint just made a one-tonne Kangaroo Gold Bullion Coin—that's roughly 2200 pounds of gold. Why? To paraphrase the reasoning of the Perth Mint's CEO, "because we felt like it and we can." The whole process of making the coin, including design, polishing, and detail work, took over three months. Even though it would be horribly impractical to use this coin in real life, the mint, which is corporation owned by the Australian government, had it certified as legal tender worth $1 million. If the coin were actually for sale it would be a sweet deal: On the open market that huge hunk of gold would go for more than $50 million. [Perth Mint]

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